Breath of Life
by GalaxyVonKiwi
Summary: The development of GLaDOS and the personality cores as seen from the point of view of an Aperture scientist working on the project, from the first time they turn her on to the last breath. Pre-Portal.


**so i thought this would be an interesting idea? not too sure how far i'll get with this, but tell me what you think. c: also, i know some of this may go against the actual chain of events in Portal as the history is told in the games and the LabRat comic, but i had to do a bit of tweaking to make this work for me. i hope nobody minds! this also happens to be my first actual fic, so go easy on me but dont be afraid to give any cc. enjoy~**

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I suppose you could say we were the best at what we did. Whether the company was going bankrupt or not, we all continued to do our jobs and do them as well as we could, in hopes we'd be able to do something incredible that would bring in millions of dollars from multiple sources, bringing Aperture out of its financial problems. Every day we worked as well as we could, researched as much as we could in the work hours which had been shortened to try and save money on heating and electricity, and every day we worked in fear that maybe the next day we wouldn't have a job to come back to, or that we would be next on the list to be subject in various tests. A lot could change over night. And with the CEO on his last breaths, things hadn't been looking too well for us. It was then we were assigned a new task. At first, none of us thought we could actually accomplish it. Simply another daydream one may have while passing the time at their desk instead of doing paperwork, one that seemed entirely unreachable. But every day we came back to it, discussed it, researched the possibilities of how it could be done, and we quickly found we were limited to the technology of our day. It took a few years until we figured out any ways we could make it work. And when we did, we were all ecstatic.

The idea was to develop a fully functioning AI, one capable of running the entire Aperture facility itself. Since Cave Johnson was quite aware of his state of health, he had already decided his wife Caroline should take over. We were instructed to map out her brain and use that information to give the AI a breath of life. A name for the AI had been decided shortly after the research began. Generic Life and Disk Operating system; GLaDOS for short. Everything seemed to be going exceedingly well, and we were all proud to be part of the production.

"Everyone's already done all the fun stuff." One of my coworkers had said once we started making progress. "It's our turn to make history; nobody's done this before. Think of how much we'll change with this."

And it was true. Everything changed with this one, uniquely complex project. Though how it changed, good or bad, depends entirely on your perspective.

I'll remember the day like it was yesterday. A Wednesday morning, we'd all been called in early. The final adjustments were being made to her. Her. It was funny, after the years of research we had put in and months of building the mechanics had put in, we'd started referring to the AI as "her", even before we knew if we were even going to succeed or not. Her. As if it were a living, breathing human with an individual mind and personality. And we were the ones giving her the breath of life.

I was reviewing the details, making sure everything was in place. I found it curious, how the only thing without specific details of the procedure, was when Caroline had been brain mapped. I knew it was a vital piece of missing information, as her mind being placed into the computer was the whole point of this project to begin with. I vaguely remembered overhearing a conversation from months previous about Caroline. We knew she wasn't in great health either, anyone who hung around Aperture for long periods of time wasn't. At this point it was ridiculous how many chemicals and amounts of radiation we'd all been exposed to, some of us more than other. And those who had become subject to human testing were on their last legs, battling various forms of cancer and illnesses, not to mention numerous broken bones that had slim chance of healing correctly. I never had agreed on the human testing, and Aperture used to only test on the homeless or those who wouldn't be missed and pay them a small sum of $60. But when the company went under, they couldn't afford to do that and started using their own employees. I knew Caroline hadn't agreed to it either, but if we wanted results, we had no other choice. There was a lot Caroline didn't agree with, as it turns out. The conversation I'd overheard was between two coworkers who were to be in charge of the brain mapping. I remembered them saying something about how she was being very hesitant about agreeing to it, and wasn't sure if she ever would. I didn't blame her. Having your head dumped into a computer didn't sound nice at all. Remembering the words those two employees exchanged made me slightly worried, for Caroline's sake more than the AI. It wouldn't have come as a surprise if they had done something drastic and forced her into agreeing to it. More than the majority of us at that point had been more than desperate to get the job done.

But on this particular Wednesday morning, I was tired. I was overlooking small details that I figured wouldn't effect the results in any major way. Not only that, but I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. Nothing would have been more disappointing than someone stepping in and saying we had missed something. It was time to put all our hard work to the test, to power up the robot the mechanics had built, all the software installed and ready. All of us were standing in a scattered row before the enormous metal body, white and black components shining in the artificial light, her single yellow optic at what looked like the AI's headpiece gleaming lifelessly, our clipboards and pens ready, our breaths held as the director counted down before flipping the switch. Instantly, the room filled with a loud whirring sound, the computer flickering to life. The yellow optic lit up, color intensifying and giving off a glow that looked...slightly menacing. The body of the AI took a few moments before taking her first movements, starting with raising herself up and staring at us all intently. No one spoke. No one moved. Our creation was taking it's first steps into the world, but that didn't mean it was complete. We wouldn't know until she spoke.

Nobody got the chance to hear her speak. Only seconds after she made her first movements, a toxic smell began to fill the room, causing my fellow scientists to quickly exchange questioning sideways glances upon noticing it. It was then the shouting from the control room had started. Nobody was exactly sure what was going on, it had all happened so quickly. But as the toxic smell intensified, our vision started to blur and thoughts began to be muffled in our heads. Panic had erupted, as we all quickly understood what the gas was. Neurotoxin. How it was being released, nobody knew. But everybody had a new goal, and that was to get out of the room alive. Everyone dashed for the door, pulling their lab coats over their mouths trying to filter the air. The view in the control room wasn't looking any better; people frantically running from switch to switch, pressing buttons and giving orders. We could just barely make out anything they were yelling through the speakers set up all through the room, except for one, clear and direct order.

_"HIT THE KILL SWITCH!"_

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**so there's the first chapter, i may continue with this if i feel like it. anyway, tell me what you think ~**


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